The present invention relates generally to domestic clothes pressing or ironing and, more specifically, to an attachment to be used on a domestic ironing board to support in a convenient location certain accessories normally used in the ironing of clothes. It is desirable for one performing the clothes pressing task to have such items as distilled water and spray starch conveniently available so that they may be applied to the clothes or the electric iron without requiring the party to move away from the ironing board. It is important that these items not be positioned on the ironing board where they would be an obstruction to the positioning of clothes on the ironing board.
The ironing of clothes in the home is conventionally accomplished with a portable electric iron used in combination with a portable or collapsible ironing board. The ironing board itself is fairly bulky having a pressing member about four and a half feet long and 15 inches wide with a padded upper pressing surface which is supported in a horizontal plane by a foldable frame. The frame normally includes legs which fold into the plane of the pressing member so that the entire ironing board may be easily stored in an upright position in a closet with the pressing member disposed vertically. Since a considerable amount of effort and design has gone into producing an ironing board design which is compact and easily stored when the legs are folded against the pressing member, it is important that any accessories or attachments used with the ironing board be very compact and removable from the ironing board so as to not interfere with its storage in a restricted area.
The supplies that are most commonly required during the ironing of clothes are starch and distilled water. Starch is available in spray containers and is applied to clothes to make them more stiff and less flexible. Since starch is used very frequently during the ironing process, it is important that it be positioned or stored close at hand where the ironer may reach it without moving from the normal ironing position adjacent to the ironing board. At the same time, it is important that the starch container not be positioned on the pressing surface where it would interfere with the ironing of clothes thereon. Therefore, it is desirable to provide means for supporting the starch container adjacent to but not on the pressing surface of the ironing board.
The distilled water used in electric steam irons is normally purchased at the local super market in one gallon containers. When it becomes necessary to fill the reservoir of the steam iron with distilled water, there is considerable difficulty in pouring the distilled water from the conventional one gallon plastic bottle into the small fill opening provided on the normal steam iron for the filling of the water reservoir. Accordingly, most steam ironers find it necessary to use a funnel or possibly a measuring cup that includes a pouring spout to direct the distilled water from the gallon bottle into the fill opening. Since it is often necessary to replenish the distilled water in the iron several times during one period of ironing, these steps in filling the iron from the gallon bottle represent a significant delay and reduce the efficiency of the ironing operation. It would therefore be desirable to provide a water container which could be stored at a location convenient to the pressing surface and which would include a pouring spout to facilitate dispensing the distilled water directly from the container into the steam iron reservoir.
There are patents which disclose various types of ironing board attachments, some of which are intended to support spray starch containers positioned conveniently with respect to an ironing board. Included in these patents are the Sanders U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,921 and the Azzara U.S. Pat. No. 4,525,942. The patent to Sanders discloses a small, upright container having a spring clip to secure it to the downwardly extending side wall of the ironing board pressing member; the container is of appropriate size to receive a starch container. The patent to Azzara discloses a basket 34 which is adapted to receive a spray can of starch 36. The basket is attached to the end of the ironing board by a bracket 24 which lays across a rail 12 secured to the board by brackets 14 and the spring 18. The apparatus of the Azzara patent is fairly complex being difficult to assemble to the ironing board and being positioned to interfere with the draping of clothes across a substantial portion of one end of the ironing board.
The published patent application to Wayne No. B 390,732 published Jan. 28, 1975 discloses an ironing board attachment designed to clamp to the pressing member of the ironing board by means of one or more finger operated screws 77. The attachment includes a basket 21 adapted to receive a starch can 65. The Wayne application recognizes the problem of providing an attachment which does not interfere with the storing of the ironing board by increasing its bulk. The Wayne application solves this problem by having the starch supporting basket separable from the structure for clamping the attachment to the ironing board. This approach is in direct contrast to the present invention in which the entire attachment is easily detachable from the ironing board so as to not interfere with the storage of the ironing board.
The Holliman U.S. Pat. No. 3,534,865 and Saltness No. 2,796,994 are of interest as showing ironing board attachments which are readily detachable from mounted positions on ironing boards. Both of these patents relate to garment supports which have clamping members spring biased into engagement with the opposite edges of a pressing member of an ironing board. The Good U.S. Pat. No. 920,049 discloses an ironing board attachment which is detachably secured to the upper surface of the pressing member by telescoping U-shaped members which engage the opposite edges of the pressing member. None of the above cited items of art disclose a structurally simple ironing board attachment for supporting supplies such as starch and water which is easily detachable from the ironing board and which provides minimum obstruction to the clothes pressing operation.